Sabbath, December 5, 2015
An Open Letter
[Part Four]
Dear Marcia,
The prophet Ezekiel presents in his latter visions a narrative chronology that incorporates the Millennium; that incorporates the glorified Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords without specifying that one era has ended and another begun … this incorporation of the Millennium follows the resurrection of Israel (chap 37) and the Lord drawing Gog from the land of Magog (a subject for the Israel in Prophecy series) and the incorporation of the Millennium in Ezekiel’s prophecies changes when the “head of the year” as presently observed by Judaism and by some fellowships of Sabbatarian Christians that use Judaism’s calculated calendar occurs. The incorporation of the Millennium in Ezekiel’s prophecies moves Ezekiel’s latter prophecies past Daniel’s visions and moves the head of the year from Yom Teruah [Feast of Trumpets] to the first day of the first month of the year, where the head of the year rightfully belongs.
The Philadelphia Church has never considered Yom Teruah as the head of the year, but has always observed without ritual or calling attention to the day the first day of the first month as the beginning of the year … this first month begins with the first sighted new moon crescent observed locally following the spring equinox, meaning the sacred year is personal, not of the collective, with the year corresponding to personal salvation and the course of Christ Jesus’ life in the disciple’s life (the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person).
Again, as previously written, Matthew’s Gospel is about the indwelling spirit of Christ in the spirit of His disciple who is willing to walk in this world as He walked. Matthew’s Gospel is the generic biography of every human son of God, born of spirit, the spirit of Christ in which dwells the spirit of God. And this is what, until fairly recently (beginning with APA Vol. 5), hasn’t been understood by any Christian since late 1st-Century CE. Thus, Matthew’s Gospel is “our” biography in Christ, with our biography differing from the biography of those who believe in the Millennium because they are filled with spirit.
Ebonite Christians in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries held as sacred a gospel similar to Matthew’s Gospel but without the first two chapters. They recognized that there were “problems” with these chapters but did not recognize the nature of the primary “problem,” that of the ending … it is for the reason that Matthew’s Gospel isn’t about the man Jesus but about the indwelling spirit of Christ in the called, justified, and glorified disciple that the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel exists, and that the Sermon on the Mount was crafted by the author of Matthew’s Gospel. But the conclusion of the Gospel pushes the reader into addressing the timelessness of heaven.
Returning to Ezekiel, who presents a new list of High Sabbaths that Israel will observe:
Thus says the Lord GOD: In the first month, on the first day of the month [presently not a High Sabbath], you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary [this was done under Moses on Yom Kipporim]. The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple. [This seventh day of the first month was not before a High Sabbath; thus, in the Millennium, Trumpets and Atonement are replaced by two not previously observed days, the 1st and 7th days of the first month.]
Ezekiel’s list includes the Passover, and Tabernacles:
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. (Ezek 45:18–25)
In Ezekiel’s listing of feasts and Sabbaths, the Passover is on the 14th day and the festival that goes with Passover will run from the 15th day of the first month (included in the count of seven days) to the beginning of the 22nd day, with one festival in the fall, this festival going from the 15th day of the seventh month to the beginning of the 22nd day, with this 22nd day of the seventh month not mentioned but suggested, thereby not breaking the mirror-image appearance that the First Unleavened coupled to the Feast of Unleavened Bread has with the Feast of Tabernacles coupled to the Last Great Day.
Note that the spring festival that accompanies the Passover is no longer called the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for that festival has been fulfilled by the seven endtime years of tribulation when all who would live lived without sin for seven years, with leavening representing sin. … In the Millennium, every person will be filled with spirit and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death. Every person will be “unleavened”; so there is no need to eat the bread of affliction for a week. Nor is there any need for a “Day of Coverings,” Yom Kipporim; for every person will cover him or herself by his or her own obedience (belief of God).
The Passover remains as a separate day with a differing offering from the festival that accompanies it; for Christ Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God will reign over living creatures as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He will not yet be free to assume the responsibilities of the Most High Host of heaven, the reality that is ahead of Him.
But the reality of the two High Sabbaths in the Feast of Unleavened Bread will have been fulfilled; the Feast of Weeks will have been fulled. The Kingdom will have been given to the Son of Man so the new year doesn’t symbolically begin halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation when dominion over this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man, but begins every year with the beginning of the year—and it is this reality that will cause “literalist” Christians great problems.
Because there are many readers (presently and more in the future) of this Open Letter, perhaps now would be an opportune time to introduce the concept of timelessness … because time and the passage of time can be written as mathematical functions of gravity, time and the passage of time are aspects [attributes] of the Creation. As such, outside the Creation, there will be no time, nor passage of time. Thus, in the supra-dimensional heavenly realm, there is no time: no past, present, nor future. All things exists in the same heavenly moment, said with a caveat. The living entity that didn’t exist in a heavenly moment, cannot enter the heavenly moment when the entity didn’t exist; for the presence of life and the absence of life cannot coexist in the same moment. Therefore, the heavenly creation of angelic sons of God who previously didn’t have life required the creation of another heavenly “moment,” with each moment functioning in heaven as a geographical location functions inside the Creation. And as a person in Idaho cannot remain in Idaho and enter my house in Michigan, an angel created in a moment apart from the moment in which the Father and the Son, the Father’s Beloved, have life can never enter the moment in which the Father has life. However, the Father and the Son can enter the moment They created when They created angelic sons of God. Hence the concealed iniquity [unbelief] of an anointed cherub became known when he unsuccessfully tried to enter the heavenly moment in which the Father has life.
As a metaphor, heavenly moments are portrayed as the mountain of God, the earthly [visible] type of which was seen at Sinai, when the people of Israel were camped around the base of Mount Sinai but prohibited from setting foot on the mountain. Only Moses as a type of the Beloved could ascend to the top of Mount Sinai and enter into the presence of the Lord.
Thus, to receive indwelling heavenly life through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person, with the spirit of God in the spirit of Christ, human sons of God receive life in or from the same heavenly moment that the Father and His Beloved have life; thus, human sons of God will be “higher” in an hierarchal order than angelic sons of God for human sons of God can enter where the Father and the Son dwell.
The Creation is the realization of democracy: all living creatures are composed of the same base elements; all breathe the breath of life; all die. There are no living creatures intrinsically higher than other creatures. Each has it own spirit; its own glory; its own habitat. Yet human persons are more adaptable than most other species, able to live in both Arctic environments as well as in tropical jungles or deserts. Thus, in type, human beings [Homo s. sapians] most closely match the ambitions of rebelling angels, who apparently desired to enter the domain of the Most High God:
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. (Isa 14:12–15)
The subject of the prophecy is the King of Babylon: “When the LORD has given you [Israel] rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! …’” (Isa 14:3–4)
That rest hasn’t yet been given here on Earth to Israel, but occurs in the Millennium; so it is not yet the hour to taunt the King of Babylon, not a human king but the Adversary, who has in the timeless heavenly realm already had fire come from his belly and consume him so that He is ashes under the feet of glorified saints (Ezek 28:18–19).
The reality of humanity living inside time and God dwelling in a timeless supra-dimensional realm permits the Adversary to simultaneously “be no more” in heaven, yet have another millennium plus of life before him inside of time, with his awareness of this reality underscoring what John sees in vision:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Rev 12:7–12 emphasis added)
When dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man, a one time occurrence that hasn’t yet happened from the perspective of being inside space-time, the Adversary is cast into the Creation formed in the Abyss. And when cast into the Creation, the Adversary will be “spiritually dead” for he will never again enter heaven. He will have no life in heaven, no presence in heaven; hence he will be dead as the Beloved of God was “spiritually dead” when He was born of the water of Mary’s womb, with Paul writing as instructions to saints,
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:3–11 emphasis added)
Again, once the Adversary is cast into space-time, he will be spiritually dead even though he continues to live … it is this reality of being dead but still living that is symbolized by Noah crossing from one age (that came to an end in water) into the following age in the Ark. Noah lived while others perished, but the descendants of Noah do not live the long lives of antediluvian man. They live only long enough to sustain a population: modern man lives a tithe of antediluvian man; a tithe of those human persons entering the Millennium.
It is crossing from death—certain death if Noah hadn’t constructed the Ark—into life that Jesus represents when He entered His creation as a spiritually dead but physically living human child, born of water. He was then born of spirit when the breath of God descended upon Him in the bodily form of a dove and entered into Him (Mark 1:10) … before Jesus entered His creation, He had equality with God, according to Paul. He was God [Theos], and was with “the God” [ton Theon], according to the author of John’s Gospel (John 1:1)—and He asked the God to return to Him the glory He had before the world existed (John 17:5), the glory He had when He, as the Rock, brought the fathers of Israel out from Egypt (1 Cor 10:4).
There is no one who will return spiritual breath or the glory he previous had to the Adversary once he is cast into the Creation; hence, he knows his time is short when he is cast into the Creation for this world is passing away to be no more (1 John 2:17). And with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1), there will be nothing of this present world remaining. Everything in this present Creation will cease to exist. And spiritual entities trapped inside this present Creation will also cease to exist.
The imprisoned spirits to whom the living inner self of Jesus preached while His earthly body lay dead in the Garden Tomb (1 Peter 3:18–20) are inside the Abyss (actually, inside the Creation that is inside the Abyss), which will also cease to be with the coming of new heavens and a new earth.
Thus, as the Adversary can simultaneously be spiritually dead while being alive inside the Creation once he is cast from heaven, disciples truly born of spirit are alive inside heaven while their fleshly bodies remain alive or are dead inside the Creation, a reality that defies understanding by once-born persons, who really cannot imagine being simultaneously alive while dead, or dead but alive. However, the twice-born person should, once this son of God matures past spiritual infancy, realize that the person isn’t the fleshly body and doesn’t have the same inner person as he or she had when once-born. For example the twice-born person who was very competitive when once-born will, as this son of God matures spiritually, cease to be competitive; for competition isn’t of God but is of the Adversary (is of the flesh). Thus, the still competitive person within Sabbatarian fellowships either isn’t born of spirit or remains a spiritual infant.
Paul used lust in this manner: before he was twice-born, he was dead to the Law although translation creates ambiguity in what Paul wrote in his treatise to the holy ones at Rome:
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. (Rom 7:4–14 emphasis added)
When was Paul alive apart from the Law? When Paul was a young child and didn’t know the Law? That’s not right for Paul knew the Law from his youth. So for Paul knowing the Law preceded in some manner “when the Commandment came,” meaning that Paul thought that he was alive while knowing the Law but not realizing that he, personally, was a dead person. He didn’t realize that sin had killed him until he was twice-born and could look at his crucified “old man” from a different perspective; from a non-physical perspective.
The Sabbatarian Christian who by faith keeps the Law but doesn’t realize that the Law that promises life to the Law-keeper will prove to be the person’s death certificate isn’t really born of spirit, with many such Sabbatarian Christians admitting that they are not born of spirit. They admit what they do not know without admitting that they know nothing even when they sincerely believe they are the pinnacle of biblical knowledge. But this situation cannot be helped in the present era.
When the Sabbatarian Christian is truly born of spirit, the Sabbatarian Christian who previously truly wanted to do what is right will now find a different law, mindset, continuing to dwell in the person’s fleshly members, (a law that causes the person to do the very things the person hates), but will finally realize that despite all the Sabbaths kept, all of the High Sabbaths kept, all of the moneys “invested” in this ministry or in that ministry, the Sabbatarian wasn’t spiritually alive until after the Law came alive inside the Christian and killed the old man, the old nature, the old inner self. Only then, when the Christian realizes that the Law promising life actually proved to be the death of the person; only then, when no sacrifice remains for the person but obedience to God out of belief of God, not belief of Moses, will the Christian be comparable to Paul. And this doesn’t happen often. This awareness is rare. And while this awareness is easy to outwardly mimic by publicly keeping the Sabbaths of God (all of the Law), the awareness itself truly changes the person from the inside out, leaving the person angry at Christian ministry in general and Sabbatarian Christendom in particular. For the deception of the Adversary is much greater than most will ever realize, hence the Apostasy of day 220.
The nature of timelessness can be roughly imagined by once-born human persons if they are inclined to push beyond what can be seen, observed, and measured, the essence of scientific discovery. But in general, Christians are poorly educated and unimaginative, having chosen to believe Scripture literally and thereby rejecting what seemed to disagree with Scripture as literally read … a book is a thing of this world. Has to be for it can be held with hands. As such, books collectively are of the Adversary—and this includes the Bible, not a claim lightly made, but how else does a Second Sophist Greek novel [Acts] get included in the canonized test? This doesn’t mean that the Bible shouldn’t be read: it should be read, including the Greek novel … where else can a person go to find a late 1st-Century Greek novel other than to Scripture? I know of no other Second Sophist novel in print. And having written novels, I’m a fan of people reading novels, even ancient episodal ones that are overly predictable in their plotting, having virtually required trial scenes and shipwrecks and near death experiences by the protagonist (often the heroine).
Like other books, novels should be read. The Bible should be read. They should be read as should other books; for how can a person know the mind of the Adversary that is imbedded inside the person’s own mind unless the person exposes his or her intellect to the mind of the Adversary as addressed by other persons, thereby permitting the person, the Christian, to “see” in allegorical 3-D vision through the parallax of differing sight lines of writers having different lines of sight about the same things.
Range finders are based on parallax, with one line of sight differing a same amount from another line of sight, with the two lines of sight crossing when the observed object is in focus (not doubled, not fuzzy). The distance is now known within a small degree of error. And so it is with the Adversary and his deception of humanity: the line of sight of every other good novelist will differ a small amount from my perspective, from my line of sight. Thus, I will see the Adversary’s broadcast of his nature differently than another author—and where my sight line agrees with my peer’s sight line, the Adversary’s deception is seen and exposed. He loses his invisibility.
I usually address this subject differently, referring to the born of spirit son-of-God having the mind of Christ and thus able to understand the things of God. But how are these things understood? They are understood through Christ’s line of sight differing from my natural line of sight (the indwelling sin in my fleshly members), which in turn differs from once-born authors’ lines of sight. Thus, with three sight-lines in play, the nature that Satan broadcasts as the prince of the power of the air is visible. And he stands condemned.
The term parallax comes from the Greek word <parallaxis>, usually assigned the meaning, “alteration,” for the sight picture of the person’s dominate eye is altered by the sight picture of the person’s weak eye, this alteration being sufficient for a person to judge distances with a reasonable degree of accuracy … on Lewis and Clark’s journey of discovery, Clark used dead reckoning to keep track of how far the Corp of Discovery traveled. On a 4,000 mile trek, Clark was off about forty miles, which is pretty good reckoning of distance.
Some of what will be written in the next paragraphs comes from Christ’s line of sight differing from my natural line of sight, thus making visible what has previously been concealed from human persons … there will be readers who cannot “see” what I see: they are not today my audience. You, Marcia, are—and your line of sight will differ from mine, so perhaps you may more clearly see the following:
In Ezekiel’s listing of Sabbaths/festivals in the seventh month, the High Sabbath that will not have been fulfilled but is not overtly celebrated is the Last Great Day (Lev 23:39, last clause), the High Sabbath commemorating the general harvest of humanity in the great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11–15), with this harvest occurring outside of space-time: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them” (Rev 20:11 emphasis added). … Since the great White Throne Judgment occurs outside of time—“earth and sky fled away”— and at or after the end of the Millennium, then those who live in the Millennium will not live into or be affected by the great White Throne Judgment while they live. This becomes important because the majority of the general harvest of humanity has already physically died without knowing God and therefore cannot effect their judgment that, according to Paul’s gospel (Rom 2:11-16), will be based on whether the work of the Law [love for neighbor and brother] was in evidence in the way they lived their lives. And this criterion will be much less a factor in the judgment of those who live in the Millennium when all will be filled with spirit.
Significant information is imbedded in Ezekiel’s list of High Sabbath and festivals that will be observed in the Millennium, information that is unstated but present; such as the fourth High Sabbath is represented by the fourth day of Unleavened Bread in the year Jesus was crucified, that Jesus as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering will receive dominion over heaven and earth when He is accepted so from the perspective of the heavenly realm, what Matthew’s Jesus tells His disciples post-Calvary is true: “‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matt 28:18). But from the perspective of humanity, all authority has not yet been given to the Son of Man and will not be until halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation.
There is a discrepancy between perspectives that is necessarily difficult for Christian novices to grasp; for a herring in salt water brine can no more comprehend life in a desert than a person confined inside space-time can comprehend life in true timelessness. Because the fleshly body in which a person dwells has to live inside of space-time (because of the body possessing mass), people are allegorically “fish” that have to live in water. And to get beyond the stumbling block of time requires a person to “see” with the mind of Christ.
Contrary to what has been taught within Christian fellowships and denominations that embraced any form of realized eschatology [the kingdom of God is already here on earth] Christ Jesus is not the present king of this world from the perspective of men. He hasn’t returned as the Messiah. The Adversary remains the prince/king of this world, with the Adversary’s kingdom identified in Scripture as “Babylon.” But from the perspective of God, the glorified Christ is already King of kings and Lord of lords. The glorified Christ has already received all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18).
Again, from the perspective of men spiritual Babylon falls when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation — and it is the alteration of the weak eye, weak perspective on the dominate eye [strong perspective] that permits endtime Philadelphia to see what Paul saw in vision in the third heaven, or what John saw in his vision.
If Christ were presently reigning as the king of this world, He would be responsible for both the evil that occurs as well as the good. He would be responsible for the deliberate starvation of Ukraine’s peasants in the 1920s; for the slaughter of East Africans by Italians troops in the 1930s; for Hitler’s gas chambers in the 1940s, as well as for the Soviet Gulag from the 1920s through the 1950s. He would be responsible for French Indo-China oppression in the 1950s; for American intervention in Vietnam, whether for good or for bad still subject to debate. He would be responsible for Pol Pot’s Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s; for the killing fields in Angola in the 1980s—the list continues to this day as Sunni fundamentalists behead Christians and burned alive a Jordanian pilot. As the reigning [sar], Christ would have to bear not only the sins of Israel, but the sins of every person everywhere.
Man’s inhumanity to his brothers and sisters seems to know no limits. And again, Christ Jesus would be responsible for all that happens if He were the King of this world, but he is not the king—
The Adversary was the prince of this world in the 1st-Century CE, and the Adversary remains the present prince of this world … in the 21st-Century, the Adversary remains the prince of the power of the air, broadcasting his nature to, casting his mindset over all living creatures.
Human nature is, in reality, the Adversary’s nature. The nature of the great predators is the Adversary’s nature. In a household of domestic cats, a person can see the carnality of the Adversary.
Long ago, the prophet Isaiah wrote about the root-shoot that would grow from the stump of Jesse, the righteous branch that will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and kill the wicked with His breath when He rules the cosmos:
Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all [His] holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (Isa 11:5–12)
In that day, the Righteous Branch will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people … there will be a Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, with this second recovery of His people from Sin and Death causing the memory of Israel’s exodus from Egypt to be forgotten (Jer 16:14–15; 23:7–8).
Do not permit anyone to tell you that humanity today dwells under the New Covenant that will have the Law written on hearts and placed inside each person who professes to be of Christ; for the day when the Righteous Branch growing from the stump of Jesse receives dominion over the single kingdom of this world has not yet come from the perspective of humanity. The Son of Man has not yet been given dominion over peoples and nations from the perspective of man. This day remains in the future, as does the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, an event preceding the Son of Man receiving dominion over the single kingdom of this world by 1260 days sans whatever time has been cut short for the sake of the Elect.
All of the preceding is headed toward a single point: in the High Sabbath calendar, the fourth “day,” fourth High Sabbath—Rosh Hashanah, literally the “head of the year, the common name given to Yom Teruah, the “day [of] shouting/blasting” and translated within Sabbatarian Christendom as “the Feast of Trumpets”—is analogous to the fourth day of the Genesis “P” creation account, the day represented by the fourth day of Unleavened Bread in the year Jesus was crucified.
It is the last clause of the preceding sentence that will cause problems …
On the fourth day of Unleavened Bread in the year Jesus was crucified, Jesus ascended to heaven and was accepted by God the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, with the acceptance of the Wave Sheaf Offering necessarily preceding the harvest of firstfruits (the barley harvest of ancient Judean hillsides). But in type the fourth day of the Genesis “P” creation account represents the resurrection and acceptance by God of human firstfruits, both those who will be great in the kingdom and those who will be least. Therefore, in the timeless heavenly realm, the same “day” that the harvest of firstfruits begins, the harvest also concludes for in timelessness, there is only the present moment. There is no yesterday nor tomorrow. Again from the perspective of heaven, the harvest of firstfruits that began with the glorified Jesus breathing on ten of His first disciples (John 20:22) and concludes at the Second Advent occurs in the “present” moment.
The preceding means that when the Christian truly born of spirit dies physically, the living inner self of this person ascends to heaven that day, not at the Second Advent, but this inner self doesn’t receive a glorified body until the Second Advent which in heaven also occurs in the same present moment … timelessness pushes everything that happens into the same heavenly moment, the present, with activity in this moment erasing previous activity. As an example, the arrival of John the Elder’s living inner self in heaven as a soul that also sleeps under the altar (see Rev 6:9) erases and rewrites the moment, thus leaving no record of, nor even memory of when John’s living self wasn’t in heaven. Likewise, at the Second Advent when John’s living self will receive a glorious new body, receipt of this new glorious body will erase the record of, the memory of when John’s living inner self didn’t have a glorious new body. No time passes in heaven between when a living soul enters heaven and when this soul receives a glorious body of spirit. Time passes here inside the creation, but not in heaven which is outside the creation. Therefore, from the perspective of heaven, it is possible for the glorified Jesus to be accepted by God as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering in the same moment His disciples first enter heaven as living inner selves, then at a later time inside the creation receive glorious new bodies in heaven in the same moment in which Jesus was accepted as the Wave Sheaf Offering.
The preceding will seem like double-speak to once-born Christians, and so it is for there is one reality for the living non-physical inner self of the son-of-God and another reality for the spiritually dead but physically living outer self. Again, the human person dwells in a space-time ocean, and is no more able to contemplate life outside of time than a herring is able to contemplate life in the Gobi Desert.
As the Beloved of God, the Creator of all things physical could have entered His creation at any time of His or of the Father’s choosing. So the year in which He surrendered His divinity and entered His creation as a human infant was “special” for a reason early Christians apparently didn’t understand. For with His ministry beginning when He was about thirty years of age and beginning in the autumn of the year, His three and a half years of ministry would conclude when He was thirty-three and concluded in the spring at Passover. And of all the years when His ministry could have concluded, there is only one that had the first High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread (the 15th day of Aviv) occurring on a Thursday, necessary for Jesus to be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights and then gone from the grave before dawn on the 18th day of the first month, the day after the weekly Sabbath. This year was 31 CE. And the day after the Sabbath was the fourth day of Unleavened Bread in this year that began April 12 (Julian).
In the reality that casts as its shadow the fourth High Sabbath, Trumpets, of a seven day High Sabbath Week, Christ Jesus is received by God the Father and given dominion over the single kingdom of this world, thereby causing Christ in His person to represent the head of the year, the new year that begins when the Adversary is cast into space-time from which he cannot escape, an event that has not yet occurred within space-time.
But on the fourth day of Unleavened Bread when Christ Jesus has returned to Him the glory He had before the creation, Christ is the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, meaning that the harvest of firstfruits doesn’t really begin until the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man; that the harvest of firstfruits that began when the glorified Jesus “breathed” on ten of His first disciples merely serves as a shadow of the “real” harvest of firstfruits that begins when Christ baptizes the world in the spirit of God upon receiving dominion over the single kingdom of this world. This now accounts for Zechariah’s prophecy:
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds [parts] shall be cut off and perish, and one third [part] shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'" (Zech 13:7–9 emphasis added)
The two parts of the little ones come into existence after Christ Jesus tells His disciples,
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." (Matt 26:30–32)
The two parts are not two thirds of humanity although the passage has been read as such—I have used it in this manner—but the two “parts” are two parts of greater Christendom, one part in the 1st-Century and one part in the 21st-Century, both parts having God the Father turn His hand against them, causing them to perish. And the question that should be asked is, Why would God turn His hand against two parts of the little ones? An equally important question also needs asked, Why would the Lord of Hosts strike the Shepherd, the man who stands next to Him? And the answer to both questions loops back to who is the prince of this world when God turns His hand against Christians. The Adversary is.
The Apostle Paul rendered a judgment on the man who was with his father’s wife (apparently his stepmother) that has bearing on why the Lord of Hosts would raise His hand against two parts of the little ones and cause them to perish:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Cor 5:1–5 emphasis added)
Paul says that when he visited the third heaven he heard things that cannot be told (2 Cor 12:4) … Paul would not have told what he was forbidden to tell; however, those things that Paul heard would have filtered their way into Paul’s corrective epistles. And it might be Paul heard that God would deliver greater Christendom to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirits [inner selves] of Christians might be saved when judgments are revealed on the day of the Lord. And this goes back to what Paul writes about himself (some of which has been previously cited):
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. … We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Rom 7:8, 14–23 emphasis added)
If nothing good dwelt in Paul’s flesh; if the law of sin had taken his fleshly body captive, this law of sin coming from the person being consigned to disobedience as a son of disobedience, then the flesh—fleshly members of Paul’s body—needed to perish in a manner analogous to Paul commanding the saints at Corinth to deliver the man worthy of death to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit might be saved when judgments are revealed.
Within Sabbatarian Christendom are Christians who claim that the God of Abraham determines who the rulers of nations should be, these Christians using as their primary reference text Daniel 4:17—
I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: “Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. (Dan 4:13–18 emphasis added)
Taking what Nebuchadnezzar is told in his vision and applying it to the course of even recent world history, Lenin would have been chosen by the Most High to rule over the peoples of Russia. Same for Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and today, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. In earlier world history, the disastrous reign of Simon bar Kokhba over the Jewish State would have been of the Most High. Same for the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero. And the problem of applying what was said by angels to Nebuchadnezzar can be seen: God isn’t responsible for ancient killing fields or for modern mass murderers. To say He is defames Him—and is contrary to Revelation, the revelation that the Father gave to Christ to give to His servants:
The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth." Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Rev 11:14–19 double emphasis added)
And (previously cited),
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Rev 12:7–12 double emphasis added)
Until the Second Passover occurs (when the Lord sets His hand a second time to recover Israel as Isaiah prophesied); until dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14); until the world is baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11), resulting in changed “natures” for all living creatures, God has great power—unmatched power—but He doesn’t rule over this world until He intervenes halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, thereby cutting time short for the sake of the Elect:
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. (Matt 24:21–22)
Christians intuitively know that this present world doesn’t belong to—isn’t ruled by— God; for an element of evil is present even when “good” is done. But they would argue (against themselves) that all authority in heaven and on earth has already been given to Jesus:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt 28:16–20)
But in Luke’s Gospel (a redaction of the oral gospel and early writings), the Eleven do not go to Galilee, but stay in Jerusalem:
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!" But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. Then He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ad said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:33–53 emphasis added)
It would be difficult for the Eleven to meet Jesus in Galilee while remaining in Jerusalem … both gospels cannot be simultaneously true. Either one is true and the other false [not true] or both are false, with the three women in Mark’s Gospel as this gospel originally ended (verse 8) telling no one that Jesus had risen from the grave, and with ten of the Eleven in John’s Gospel being gathered in a locked room when Jesus entered and breathed on them, saying, Receive spirit holy (John 20:22).
What about, Sabbatarians will ask, what Nebuchadnezzar is told in vision? How can a literalist read the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will and sets over it the lowliest of men without concluding that the Most High already rules the single kingdom of this world? The literalist cannot. But the course of history contradicts a literalist reading of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision. So too does John’s Gospel; so does Revelation. And we have come to an impasse analogous to literalist readings of the four distinct post-Calvary gospel accounts … they cannot all be true.
One perspective, one line of sight does not allow disciples to see the things of God as they will occur in this world …
The Christian who holds the belief (as recently expressed to me by a Sacred Names Heretic) that Scripture must be logically consistent should have untold problems reconciling the four gospel post-Calvary accounts … Mark’s Gospel and Matthew’s Gospel, together, form one narrative unit analogous to a Hebraic thought-couplet in poetic discourse; hence Bishop Papias at the end of the 1st-Century CE writes, as cited by Eusebius in his third book, that Matthew’s Gospel was written in Hebrew style, the meaning of which has been debated within Christendom for centuries; the meaning of which is that Matthew’s Gospel isn’t about the physical man Jesus, but is about the spiritual Jesus that dwells within every twice-born disciple. For in Hebraic thought-couplets the first presentation of an idea or concept is physical (of this world), and the second presentation is spiritual (of heaven). Bishop Papias would have known this, but two centuries later, most likely Eusebius would not have known.
With Mark’s Gospel and Matthew’s Gospel forming a narrative physical/spiritual couplet, that leaves only Luke’s Gospel and John’s Gospel that need to be addressed, with the author of Luke’s Gospel stating in his introduction (Luke 1:1–4) that what he writes is a redaction of the oral gospel and what earlier writers have written. Simply put, Luke’s Gospel is uninspired; is a compilation of what was being taught within the late 1st-Century Jesus Movement.
John’s Gospel is perhaps the most authoritative and certainly the most literarily sophisticated, but it condenses Jesus’ ministry into a single year for narrative purposes—
Christians who argue that Scripture is the infallible word of God compromise their integrity to an idol. Scripture is an inspired book compiled by uninspired but intelligent men centuries after texts were written, copied over and over again, edited and compressed, redacted. While it will seem blasphemous to biblical literalists to deny infallibility to Scripture, it is blasphemous to state that the Bible is the infallible word of God … hasn’t this person closely read the texts comprising the canon? If the person has, then the person who claims the Bible is the infallible word of God is without faith, without belief of God; for when Paul writes, “To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Rom 3:2–3), Paul leaves open the referent for <’epistesav — disbelieved; ’apistia — unbelief> translated here as “unfaithful.”
Simply put, the scribes of the Great Assembly were unfaithful because of their unbelief. The Christian scribes of the 2nd through 5th Centuries were unfaithful because of their unbelief. And what’s left? Texts that reveal God indirectly, the sort of indirection typified by First Nation peoples dwelling on the Pacific Coast at the time of initial contact. And this is enough for an installment. Until next time.
Respectfully,
Homer Kizer
"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."